Financial black hole for council which is supporting more people while facing cost increases itself

A new energy contract with higher gas and electricity costs will impact across schools, council buildings and street lights, the head of finance warned councillors.

Jane Thomas said at the same time the council was having to support its residents more as they faced their own cost of living challenges.

The council's cabinet was given an update on its Medium-Term Financial Strategy by Ms Thomas on Tuesday .

It followed the announcement by the Welsh Government that Powys can expect an 8.7 per cent increase, equating to just under £18.3 million in its provisional financial settlement.

Ms Thomas said: “The cost-of-living challenge more generally is seeing us have to support our residents more, we’re seeing an increasing demand for service.

“Increasing levels of homelessness referrals to social services and we are supporting our residents with our money advice team to provide help wherever we can.

“Although having an improved settlement to what we expected, we are still facing significant cost pressures next year identified thus far as over £40 million.

“The additional settlement will go some way to breach that gap. owever, it still leaves us with a considerable gap to balance our budget.”

She said an “extensive” level of savings or cuts will be needed as well as deciding the Council Tax in looming budget.

“We are seeing an unprecedented financial challenge, we are in a better place now in terms of our final plan for next year, out of necessity we’ve focussed on the short term.”

Deputy council leader, Councillor Matthew Dorrance said: “Despite the fantastic settlement from the Welsh Government there’s no milk and honey with this.

“We need to fundamentally re-shape the way we deliver services to meet those challenges and this document clearly sets that out.

“But the priority has to be for us to deliver services that protect the vulnerable in our communities and I hope we can all agree on that.”